Families, Kinship, and

Descent
The Basic Building Blocks of Society
 Family, Kinship, Descent
• The way in which people
behave toward one
another is based on they
perceive their role; this
role in most societies is
defined by whom one is
related to.
• As we shall see, many
aspects of kinship and
descent are socially
constructed, as is race.
 Some New Terminology
• Affinals: relatives by marriage.
• Matrilineal descent: kin reckoned through the
mother’s lineage.
• Patrilineal descent: kin reckoned through the father’s
lineage.
• Bilateral descent: kin reckoned through both sides of
the family.
• Matrilocal: marriage residence at the mother’s family
house.
• Patrilocal: marriage residence at the father’s family
house.
 What’s so special about family?
• A family is the basic unit
of the social group.
• Anthropologists are
interested in looking at
families and how they
reckon kin since kin
behavior has specific
rules in each culture.
Types of families
• Nuclear family (husband,
wife, offspring).
• Extended family (family
consisting of three or more
generations).
Other descent groups include:
• Lineages (“the family
line/tree”)
• Clans (groups assuming
common ancestry).
 Muslims of Western Bosnia
• Nuclear families lacked autonomy.
• Several families were embedded in an extended
family household called a zadruga.
• Each zadruga is headed by a head male and his
wife (the senior wife).
• Each family has its own sleeping room, but all
material possessions are used by any member of
the zadruga. Zadrugas are patrilocal.
 The Nayar of Southwest India
• A large and power caste that lives in large,
extended matrilineal families.
• The matrilineal compounds are called tarawads.
• Each tarawad is headed up by a senior woman.
• Marriage a formality; men would return to their
mother’s tarawad a few days after marriage.
• Nayar women frequently have multiple sexual
partners; biological fathers are not significant in
this particular kin system.
 Industrial Nuclear Families: The
New Hunter/Gatherers?
• Offspring, once grown, leave the family of
orientation to begin their own family of
procreation.
• The new families are highly mobile, selling their
labor rather than their crops. Postmarital
residence is neolocal.
• Their mobility and emphasis on small,
economically self-sufficient family units make
industrial nuclear families similar to foragers.
 Descent Groups
• Descent groups are permanent social units
whose members believe they have ancestors in
common.
• Descent groups are frequently exogamous.
• Unilineal descent is kin reckoning through one
side of the family (matrilineal or patrilineal).
• Bilateral descent reckons through both lineages.
 Lineages and Clans
• Common to both types of descent groups is the
belief in an apical ancestor(s) (among Christians,
this would be Adam and Eve).
• Lineages differ from clans in that lineages use
demonstrated descent (the actual genealogy can be
cited).
• Clans have stipulated descent (they just say they are
related because they want to be!).
 Kinship Terminology
Kinship Kin Group Residence Rule Economy
Terminology

Lineal Nuclear family Neolocal Industrialism,

foraging
Bifurcate merging Unilineal descent Patrilocal or Horticulture,
group – patrilineal matrilocal pastoralism,
or matrilineal agriculture

Generational Ambilineal Ambilocal Agriculture,

descent group, horticulture,
band foraging
Bifurcate Varies Varies Varies
collateral